In the News: Air Pollution Not Equitable, A Long Hot Summer for NYC, Oil Spill Prep, & More

By their measurements the urban areas with the greatest gaps in pollution exposure between whites and nonwhites are New York-Newark, Philadelphia, and Bridgeport-Stamford, Connecticut, respectively. [The Atlantic]

The Central Park Conservancy, the private nonprofit that manages the Manhattan landmark, in June will begin deploying a crew to guide workers at less-endowed parks in the outer boroughs — sharing its resources amid Mayor Bill de Blasio’s call for greater equity across city parks. [AM New York]

The 2014 edition of the Farmer’s Almanac predicts the New York area will be socked by a wet, hot summer that’s set to dump a higher-than-average amount of rain across the five boroughs. [New York Post]

The state Department of Environmental Conservation has scheduled four public information sessions regarding environmental reviews New York City must conduct when evaluating damage from discharging highly turbid water from the Ashokan Reservoir into the Lower Esopus Creek in Ulster County. [Daily Freeman]

But three years into a four-year plan to phase out No. 6, barely more than half of the buildings that were burning it have switched to cleaner oil. And of those that have stopped using No. 6, hundreds have switched to No. 4, which though permitted for another 16 years, can be only slightly less noxious, depending on the supplier. [New York Times]

The state’s Department of Environmental Conservation announced last week that it’s working with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Coast Guard to revise and update its plans for preventing and responding to spills. [Huffington Post]

A survey of hydraulic fracturing sites in Pennsylvania revealed drilling operations releasing plumes of methane 100 to 1,000 times the rate the EPA expects from that stage of drilling, according to a study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. [Washington Post]

A key initiative in mitigating intense city heat waves has stalled in the handoff between the administrations of Michael Bloomberg and Bill de Blasio, as the city heads toward more record-breaking temperatures. [Capital New York]